I'm trying to understand whether taking glasses off to use shorter eye relief binos is ever done. My eyes were lasered awhile ago so I can drive safely without glasses and my terrible astigmatism is all gone. Just wondering if anyone bothers?

I absolutely hate looking through binoculars with my eyeglasses: the view is not as good, the field of view is narrower even with the best of binoculars, and the eye cups leave smears on my eyeglass lenses, and there are more reflections and glare.

For the past 30 years i have lifted the eyeglasses on my forehead when using binoculars. It has become second nature and i don't even think about it. They remain hooked around my ears, they just hand up there on the forehead above the binoculars. When i lower the binoculars i lower the eyeglass as well. I do need the eyeglasses, i can't just leave them home. Without them my vision is not sharp enough for bird-watching or hunting (but i could drive and function without problem, for example).

I do pay attention to this when i try and fit eyeglasses. I try the frame to see how it sits on my nose and on my forehead.

When hunting and travelling i use a safety chord for eyeglasses, around my neck, to make sure that i don't loose them. That has never happened, except when i was looking through binoculars while in a canoe in strong current, instead of paddling, and i flipped and had to swim for my life. I lost both eyeglasses and binoculars, and a cooler full of really nice beer.

I remove my glasses when glassing, also use a cord to secure them... just something I've always done. As was mentioned before, the field of view is much better and glassing is much more comfortable. Wf

I went out for a walk for an hour this evening and i tried to use a pair of binoculars with long eye relief, adjusted so i could place them against my eyeglass lenses. I still hate it. I think what bothers me is the fact that when i have binocular eye cups against my eye brows i get a more stable view, when i place binoculars against eyeglasses i don't have such a stable view and i just push the eyeglass frame into my nose and face.

Even the best long eye relief binoculars are not so pleasant to use for me, because the long eye relief design produces a bit of tunneling and soda straw view effect. Also, positioning and adjusting the binoculars for a comfortable view is more difficult with long eye relief.

Thanks this is much appreciated. I ask because the availability of good used porro prisms skyrockets when the older shorter eye relief are thrown into the mix. The slight loss of field of view is often referenced for even modern long eye relief binos.

I did a little experiment with some cheap Bushnells and found the no eye glass method much more natural looking and the view was outstanding and the tendency to flick to black was greatly reduced. I suspect operator error mostly.

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